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Best post processing for M43?

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C Sean

C Sean

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As a hobbyist M43 user, what is the best program to use for processing M43 files?

I been using Lightroom 6 since it first come out in 2015 and I imagine since then post process programs greatly improved. So what program would you recommend?
 
C Sean said:
As a hobbyist M43 user, what is the best program to use for processing M43 files?

I been using Lightroom 6 since it first come out in 2015 and I imagine since then post process programs greatly improved. So what program would you recommend?
Click to expand...
I think Lightroom Classic is the best program for general post processing. For more complex requirements Photoshop can do just about anything you would want but it does have a fairly steep learning curve. I find the $9.95 a month for both programs reasonable.

I used to use OM Workspace for RAW file conversion to TIFF but with the current Adobe RAW support it's no longer needed and seems to do just as good a job.
 
Last edited:
PhotoLab Elite v5 does a good job at AI noise reduction. I prefer the tools on Capture One v22 but have both.

OM Workspace is free and has reasonable AI NR for supported bodies, but is a bit limited.

Andrew
 
I have an em1.2 and use LR6 standalone as my primary "first pass" editor for Raw files and for JPG shoots (where I have more than just a few images to deal with). By first pass, I mean basic contrast & exposure adjustments, cropping, and converting RAW to JPG. In some cases I'll use adjustment brushes, the clarity slider, clone tool, saturation & vibrance tools, etc. But I always reduce sharpness tool to 0.

For final adjustments, I use Paint Shop Pro, which I always upgrade to the latest version. I like its noise reduction tool, it sharpening tool, and it's easier-to-use tool for resizing and reducing file size.

Because LR6 still handles my RAW output very well, I see no use for renting the latest version. For single photos or ones from a limited shoot, I'm trying the OM Workspace program, or I just use PSP.
 
C Sean said:
As a hobbyist M43 user, what is the best program to use for processing M43 files?

I been using Lightroom 6 since it first come out in 2015 and I imagine since then post process programs greatly improved. So what program would you recommend?
Click to expand...
For me I cannot complain about ON1. Most tools + some really extra ones integrated into one package - thus simple workflow, not jumping here and there. It has some quirks though, so for multilayered compositions I found no replacement for PS.
 
Quite honestly, I find it nothing short of shocking ANYONE would recommend Adobe. DXO Photolab 5 is leagues beyond them in several important areas. Their Profiles are superb and far beyond anything Adobe for starters. The feature set such as their tools make any adjustments a breeze and more accurate in their finished product. Their noise reduction is the top dog right now among virtually any packages out there. It's so intuitive and most importantly the end results are simply the best out there for Mft, especially the OM-1 now.
 
I shoot Olympus, so far for me, my best logical choice is Workspace as RAW processor. I used to use LR 5.X for RAW then CS6 for final images. Thanks Adobe for going prescription which really turned me off so I now use Workspace for RAW and Corel PaintShop Pro for final images. Workspace is free but it is so good that I don't miss LR at all. PaintShop Pro is equally as good as CS6 and only cost around $70 for a perpetual license that I can install on multiple computers in the house. I only upgrade every couple of years, so far I paid for 2017, 2020, and 2022. For dollars and cents wise, it is a lot cheaper than paying $10 a month for the last five years. Are you listening Adobe?
 
C Sean said:
As a hobbyist M43 user, what is the best program to use for processing M43 files?

I been using Lightroom 6 since it first come out in 2015 and I imagine since then post process programs greatly improved. So what program would you recommend?
Click to expand...
After years of wandering between software and also trying 30 day trials of many, I have settled on DxO currently Photolab5 Elite. Can't beat it for ease of use and the results.

Sure it does not do stacking yet but rumours have that coming. I resort to Affinity Photo or Silkypix for any stacking efforts (rare).

Back in my other Sony Cybershot forum there was recent threads about conversions and some direct comparisons on someone's problem raw file had Photolab the clear winner. That for a tiff and following processing carefully with the Topaz suite worked wonders.

Always be patient and wait until Black Friday for software deals, the last two years DxO had a genuine 50% discount on all its products and upgrades. Possibly soon Photolab6 will be announced and that usually has a 30% or 40% discount for early buyers/upgraders. Then a bit later at Black Friday we had the brief 50% off, so that's when I upgrade. Not buying cameras anymore as no GAS attacks, so got to spend the $$ on something. :-)

My main tools that seem to get used at various times...
  • FastStone Viewer for all uploads to my day dated folder sets and for minor fiddles with jpegs from cameras or jpegs from raw conversions, crop/resize/sharpen etc as needed for say web display. Free but really worth a donation.
  • DxO Photolab5 Elite for all raw conversions, a few get the DeepPRIME treatment as needed. Easiest raw converter I've tried to get the results I like. Need to also buy DxO ViewPoint 3 or the Nik Collection to get the easy perspective correction and the very useful for wide angle shots Volume Deformation (Panini?) correction to stop people at the edges looking too fat.
  • Affinity Photo for stack and stitch attempts and various other toolbox fiddles like adding vector graphics or text to images.
  • Silkypix Pro 10 is there out of habit as I used V2 up to V5 Pro for a long time then went to DxO as SP V5 could not get a certain colour right once. The V10 I updated to for old time's sake now gets that odd colour right. Its conversions are good but DxO is clearly better if pixel peeping. Silkypix fully featured and generally nice results but it is a bit "different".
  • Picasa found and revived as it is the fastest way to slew through multiple folders in a search for something "lost".
  • Capture One Express for Sony is there because it is free and used occasionally on my Sony RX100M6 files out of curiosity, but it is a clumsy cow to use after DxO which gives better results anyway.
  • OM Workspace there of course because it is free and can act as a reference converter at times, but DxO is the one for everything.
  • I was a long time user of PaintShop Pro from its early shareware days but when Corel bought it from JASC it all fell apart, slowly though it seems to be getting more reliable and could serve again as a very useful and versatile toolbox image editor, but definitely not as a raw converter because it has never been as good as DxO. I get nag windows to update my 2019 version to now 2022 version, one day may splash the cash for fun when it finally discounts enough.
  • JPGTime is there for correcting wrong clocks in cameras and time zone mistakes. http://www.muralpix.com/jpgtime/ works on all file types.
  • ExposurePlot is there to analyse focal length usage and more https://www.vandel.nl/exposureplot.html
  • VLC for watching video clips and for grabbing frames https://www.videolan.org/vlc/
That's about all I need to have on a Windows 10/11 computer to do what I need or want to do and feel comfortable that I can tackle any problem.

The very minimum I would have is DxO Photolab Elite + ViewPoint plus FastStone Viewer. That could do about 98% of what I need to do.
 
C Sean said:
As a hobbyist M43 user, what is the best program to use for processing M43 files?

I been using Lightroom 6 since it first come out in 2015 and I imagine since then post process programs greatly improved. So what program would you recommend?
Click to expand...
Best for what kind of processing?

It's hard to answer without knowing if you just need to crop, or do some denoise, or say add profiles made from LUTs or do film simulations, make your own profiles with a colorchecker, or publish to web sites, or do focus stacking, or make panoramas, or composite, or, well, you get the drift.

Lr Classic and Photoshop are still the most comprehensive. Some niche players can do better at certain tasks, esp denoise. But note that OM Workspace actually has a pretty decent denoise module you can download. I'd start with that, see where it doesn't meet your needs, then seek out a tool to fill in what you need.
 
I have been playing with the Beta of Topaz Photo AI since I got my OM-1 a few weeks ago. Obviously not a total solution but it does what it does very well.
 
Really, the best is the one you like and use. There are many choices out there that work very well with any sensor format and this is mostly a matter of preference. That said there isn't a single one that is best at everything.
 
ProDude said:
Quite honestly, I find it nothing short of shocking ANYONE would recommend Adobe. DXO Photolab 5 is leagues beyond them in several important areas. Their Profiles are superb and far beyond anything Adobe for starters. The feature set such as their tools make any adjustments a breeze and more accurate in their finished product. Their noise reduction is the top dog right now among virtually any packages out there. It's so intuitive and most importantly the end results are simply the best out there for Mft, especially the OM-1 now.
Click to expand...
 
Guy Parsons said:
  • I was a long time user of PaintShop Pro from its early shareware days but when Corel bought it from JASC it all fell apart, slowly though it seems to be getting more reliable and could serve again as a very useful and versatile toolbox image editor, but definitely not as a raw converter because it has never been as good as DxO. I get nag windows to update my 2019 version to now 2022 version, one day may splash the cash for fun when it finally discounts enough.
Click to expand...
I still rely on the last version of Paint Shop Pro from before the Corel takeover, version 9. It's coming up on 20 years old now, but I still find it does almost anything I need. If you hang around in the About box of that version long enough, you may see a name you recognize. Back then the raw conversion was provided through a third party, I don't know if that's still the case but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
 
RSTP14 said:
Really, the best is the one you like and use. There are many choices out there that work very well with any sensor format and this is mostly a matter of preference. That said there isn't a single one that is best at everything.
Click to expand...
My sentiments, exactly! I even like ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate.
 
Mark Ransom said:
Guy Parsons said:
  • I was a long time user of PaintShop Pro from its early shareware days but when Corel bought it from JASC it all fell apart, slowly though it seems to be getting more reliable and could serve again as a very useful and versatile toolbox image editor, but definitely not as a raw converter because it has never been as good as DxO. I get nag windows to update my 2019 version to now 2022 version, one day may splash the cash for fun when it finally discounts enough.
Click to expand...
I still rely on the last version of Paint Shop Pro from before the Corel takeover, version 9. It's coming up on 20 years old now, but I still find it does almost anything I need. If you hang around in the About box of that version long enough, you may see a name you recognize. Back then the raw conversion was provided through a third party, I don't know if that's still the case but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
Click to expand...
Yes, I stayed at V8 for a hundred years, it did all I wanted then. At the time I was comparing it to V6 of Photoshop and PSP8 was by far the nicer program to use. It realised that the mouse had two buttons whereas Photoshop was basically stuck in the early Mac one button mindset. Slower to use.

While in Thailand I bought a $2 pirate copy of V10 to use as a trial but it was buggy for me so abandoned it.

Later on bought the 2018 version and it sort of worked, but hung or crashed now and then on simple things. The really cheap offer to upgrade saw me go to the 2019 version just for fun but haven't really bothered with it much since then. The very much lookalike Affinity Photo came at a discount and basically replaced it for the various strange toolbox activities.

The PSP raw converter has probably AfterShot Pro innards which came from the old highly regarded Bibble. In the days I used AfterShot Pro for conversions the results were rather good and it was certainly then the very fastest raw converter in existence.

Just now looked at the PSP 2023 page and they state that AfterShot Lab is now included in PSP for raw conversions. https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/products/paintshop-pro/ultimate/#overview
 
Photoshop elements for me, if you buy it you get a certain number of repeat downloads of it if you comp fails or for whatever reason you loose it and updates to upgrades dont cost that much.
 
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